Saturday, August 05, 2006

Money Market Fund Survey

Money market fund yields have gone up above 5% in recent days. With yield curve being flat, we do not have to extend the duration to get a higher return in the current market environment. Below is the small survey of the few larger money market funds from the two of the more popular fund families:

Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX)
Yield – 5.07%
Total net assets - $66.6 billion
Expense ratio – 0.30%

Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX)
Yield – 5.01%
Total net assets - $6.2 billion
Expense ratio – 0.30%

Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VMPXX)
Yield – 4.65%
Total net assets - $5.2 billion
Expense ratio – 0.30%

Vanguard Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund (VMSXX)
Yield – 3.45%
Total net assets - $18.2 billion
Expense ratio – 0.13%

Fidelity Select Money Market Portfolio (FSLXX)
Yield – 5.05%
Total net assets – $1.44 billions
Expense ratio – 0.40%

Fidelity Money Market Fund (SPRXX)
Yield – 5.00%
Total net assets – $6.52 billion
Expense ratio – 0.42%

Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX)
Yield – 4.93%
Total net assets – $82.04 billions
Expense ratio – 0.45%

All disclaimers apply.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the moment, I have most of my cash in my Fidelity Brokerage account in the Fidelity Michigan Muncipal MMF, which is tax-emempt for both state/federal. However, it is only yielding about 3.1%.

Taking into account the expenses, I think you are almost better opening an online savings account such as HSBCDirect that is yielding 5.05%, no fees or minimum balances.

Any thoughts on that?

HeJustLaughs said...

Jason, I prefer Emigrant Direct. HSBC's ACH transfer times are extremely slow. The benefit of a HSBC account is they offer an ATM card, but there are no HSBC branches around me. ED's also seems a bit more competitive with the rate increases.

Dymphna said...

Everbank offers a 5.51% on a checking account. This is a three month offer. After that it returns to the mid 4's -- maybe 4.36?? Anyway, there's plenty of time to move it at that point.

Our "local" bank -- Bank of America -- has such a poor return on interest checking that I think it still registers at a fraction of a percent. B of A is getting left behind...